Microbial macroecology: In search of mechanisms governing microbial biogeographic patterns

作者：Xiaofeng Xu, Nannan Wang, David A. Lipson, Robert L. Sinsabaugh, Josh Schimel, Liyuan He, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, Leho Tedersoo · 发表于：Global Ecology and Biogeography · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1111/geb.13162 · 被引用次数：103 · 研究领域：Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology、Gut microbiota and health、Species Distribution and Climate Change

Abstract Introduction Rapidly advancing technologies and accumulating information about microbial communities across the globe allow the quantification of microbial properties and functions at a macro‐scale. These emerging microbial biogeographic patterns call for a practical macroecological approach to investigate their underlying mechanisms. Aims The primary aims of this paper are to review the advancements of microbial macroecology in seeking mechanisms governing microbial biogeographic patterns, and to further lay out a roadmap for microbial macroecology in 10 years. Methods We reviewed the progress of microbial macroecology and demonstrated the application of the microbial macroecological approach to microbial biogeographic patterns with three case studies. Results Microbial macroecology provides a platform for understanding microbial abundance, community structure, and functioning across space, time, and taxonomic hierarchy. It emphasizes the integral effects of environmental filtering, microbial responses, diversification, dispersal, and local extinction that drive the microbial biogeographic patterns. The microbial macroecological approach emphasizes the last two stages of the four‐stage scientific method applied to microbial ecology: (a) describing microbial traits across scales to reveal patterns, (b) mathematically representing these patterns, (c) developing and testing conceptual models to build a mechanistic understanding of these patterns from a macroecological ...